Ukulele, Japan
Music Books
Solo Jazz Arrangements of Movie Music
Author/Arranger:  Tominaga Hiroyuki
Tab/Notation/CD
  • ​Click here to view Table of Contents
  • Description and Review
    Tominaga's 30 artful arrangements of mostly iconic movie theme songs are a joy to learn and play.  This book is for the intermediate to advanced player.  None of the arrangements are too hard to play but you will have to devote time to learning them.    Because the fingerings are so intuitive, once you get them under your fingers they'll stay there forever.  I really enjoy the variety of songs in this book.  I've been enjoying learning "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and the "Cinema New Paradiso Love Theme" from this book.  I really enjoy listening to Pat Metheny and Charlie Hayden's version of Cinema New Paradiso on their album Across The Missouri Sky and this arrangement while quite different from Metheny's is true to this beautiful tune.  Those two arrangements have been worth the price of the book.

    The companion CD is helpful in establishing rhythm and tempo.  The Japanese publisher, Rittor Music, has posted YouTube videos of many of the tunes, however recently they became unavailable to viewers outside Japan.  Search on "Rittor Music" and you'll find them but at least for me they won't play.
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Ukulele Swing Jazz
Author/Arranger:  Nakamura Takashi
Tab/Notation/CD Description and Review:

I highly recommend this book for intermediate jazz ukulele players.

Nakamura Takashi is one half of the popular duo, TT Cafe.  Nakamura-san's arrangements are thoughtful, well-composed, and work well as both solos and as accompaniments.  I've been slowly learning several of his arrangements and particularly like what he's done with "It's only a Paper Moon" and "Georgia".  

​Now if I only had more time...  So much music to learn and so little time!!

Ukulele Jazz / Kiyoshi Kobayashi

=SOLD OUT= 

We're contacting the publisher to see when this will be made available again.  Stay tuned....
Please consider purchasing Nakamura Takashi's excellent book:  Ukulele Swing Jazz! (Above)

Ukulele Jazz:  The collection of jazz music by ukulele solo arrangement
Author/Arranger: Kobayashi Kiyoshi
​Tab/Notation/CD
  • Click here to view Table of Contents
  • Description and Review
    Kobayashi, one of Japan's top ukulele players, arranged  27 Jazz standards for this book.  The arrangements are well composed and accessable to most intermediate players.  This would be a great book for a player just getting getting into playing Jazz on the Ukulele.

    This is one of the first ukulele jazz books I bought.  I purchased it specifically for "Satin Doll", a tune which I love.  This arrangement has now become my personal theme song.  I like the way it's laid out on the fretboard and the nice combination of lead notes and arpeggios.  

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Other Interesting Books

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Magazines

Ukulele Magazine is published by Rittor Music and is not affiliated with the US magazine.  The magazine is written entirely in Japanese and often comes with a companion CD covering the very sophisticated music published in the issue.  Instrument reviews, and of course advertisements abound and while you may not be able to read the text, the photos are worth a thousand words!
​Click on image to view and purchase
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Ukulele, Japan